Stephen's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Gray

I drove past the location and was excited to see a local pizzeria amid the sea of chain joints. I came back a couple hours later after looking online at reviews, photos, and the menu, all of which impressed. The pricing was on par with other local pizza joints (think Main Street in JC and Kingsport) and the staff friendly enough. I ordered a cheesebread, personal pep pizza, and a philly sandwich. The cheesesticks were good, though a little over seasoned. That's where any pleasantness ended. My pizza arrived and looked, and felt, like a frozen pizza you can pull out of any supermarket freezer. I took a few bites and asked my co-eater to try a bite and see if it reminded her of anything. She immediately said, "frozen pizza". Even the crust tasted like it was a Red Barron. I don't hate frozen pizza, so I continued on at that point only really annoyed by the price. My co-eater then asked me to try her steak from the sandwich and it was.....not great. No real beef flavor and just bland. About halfway through the sandwich, she pulls something out of it and we begin to examine it. It wasn't a hair but was METAL. I took it up front, where about 4-5 employees were standing around, and produced the sandwich and metal. One girl who was working, took it, turned to a male employee and very matter-of-factly states, "it's steel wool". They quickly apologized and offered a remake or refund of the sandwich. I took the refund and left very unsatisfied. I'm not sure if I went on an off day or what, but I'm very puzzled by the other reviews of...

Updated * We were contacted by the owner who is very customer satisfaction based and totally understood the issues. First class customer service from the owner. It comes down to good help is hard to find as all of us small buisness owners know. Thank you for making this right we will be back to give you our buisness again.

We had became regulars to this establishment even though it's out of the way for us to get. (We live in Limestone) We have told many people to try it. Unfortunately last night will probably be our last. We ordered over phone At 7:45 pm Monday night was told 25 minutes for a large pizza and cheesesticks . We show up 20 minutes after call wife went to pay they took money said it would be ten more minutes. The cashier then wen to back literally 3 minutes later two girl come from the back not seen before but heard talking the whole time. They they proceed to start making our order in front of us. No apologies no explanation no hurry or care in the world. Just talking loudly about being independent young women and some guy named Sam. At one point the girl making the pizza has to stop and find out what actually hours on the menu ordered pizza. So now we are ten minutes... My wife decided to stop her and ask if that was our order she was making for the past ten minutes. She said well yeah they should have told you we lost your ticket... This place was dead at the time zero other customers the whole time .... 4 team members inside... You guys obviously don't want our business anymore... Plenty of pizza...

I love Stephen's Pizzeria and their calzones are my favorite! However, when I went in to order a calzone to go, it took over 45 mins for them to get it ready. I understand it can take a while but there was only one other family in there and they had already been served and were leaving. The entire time all I could hear was the workers talking in the back about who was giving their notices and how they could be making more money working somewhere else instead. I get that this may be a minimum wage job, but complaining in front of customers or within the vicinity where customers can hear you is extremely unprofessional. Not to mention when I tried to order a drink, the boy at the counter said they only had what was in the cooler. I just wanted a drink while I waited, nothing more. He then tried to charge me 75 cents for a cup of water (I just wanted a regular soda) and they would not accept my card because it was less than $1. So I found some cash in my purse and came back in to order the drink and a different guy comes up to the counter and tells me it is $2.62! I knew the drinks were overpriced and I was okay with paying a few dollars from the beginning, but to treat me the way the first boy did was unacceptable. Like come on. Your employees should be passionate about their work and have proper training. I probably won't be back after this incident. The whole thing was ridiculous. Maybe it was just this particular shift but regardless, it was terrible...